Eagle Scout Project

I wanted to do something pretty meaningful for my Eagle Scout project. Our Scout Troop, Denver Area Council Troop 556, works closely with Denver Mountain Parks, of Morrison, Colorado, to provide some important service to keep parks, trails, and recreation areas in good condition and taken care of. The Braille Trail is one of their most interesting trails. Running the length of the 1.5-mile loop is a coated metal cable to assist blind persons in hiking and every few hundred feet is a plaque in both Braille and Romanized letters that describe the area around the trail, thus opening a whole new world to people with vision problems. At the bottom of the loop is a picnic area with tables, benches, and a bathroom. The area had fallen into disrepair and was splintered and decayed, with the wood from the tables rotting and unusable. For my project, myself and a group of about 10 or 15 went into this area and restored it to a usable state. We sanded down all the rough edges and replaced much of the rotting wood. We then stained the tables with fresh, biodegradable stain to protect them from the elements. A few days later, three of us returned and sanded the wooden walls of the outhouse and painted it with water-based paint to protect it. The end result wasn't immediately noticeable, but after a few weeks, we returned to the area for a picnic and enjoyed not being splintered and could readily tell the difference we had made.